The very basis behind this unit plan was to link everyday examples of the topic being conveyed to students' lives. I feel that this is one of the best ways to make any subject matter meaningful and engaging. I selected the topic of following the smallest functioning unit of life through the human body until it reached its end point- the formation of organs. At this point I chose the human brain as the example organ.
Every lesson was planned in the way that it gave students activities to work on, whether it be watching a video and answering questions based on the movie, participating in laboratory practices or even imagining that one is a scientist and finding their way through the investigation with support from the scientific method. I feel that for students to learn best they need to live through their learning. It's a great way to make connections between the new and alien material being taught and applying it to what they have learned. In other terms, building upon their schema.
I built upon my students' prior knowledge by first pre-assessing them. Throughout this unit the most common way of pre-assessing was through oral class discussions within the introduction periods of the lesson plan. However, other methods were utilized, one example in particular was when I made usage of a "KWL" chart which asks the students first what they know of the new topic, then what they want to learn from the topic, and finally after being subjected to the material I afforded the students time to fill in the last section which was what they learned from the current target. From the knowledge that I was able to obtain I was able to construct my instruction in a way that was focused on what the students did not know, rather than teaching material that the students clearly are seasoned it.
I organized the sequence of my lessons in a way that correlated to the overall national science standard that I chose for my unit plan. It reads as follows: Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms. Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as a muscle. Different tissues are in turn grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs. Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole. I began teaching the most primitive form of the cell, then moved into the concept of multicellular organisms. After, I lead into the lesson about cell differentiation which in turn finally formed tissues. Because I knew I wanted to use the human brain as the example organ I chose the two different tissues which the brain is comprised of. My final lessons dealt with the anatomy and physiology of the brain, brain dissection, and lastly an over-view on how to protect the most extraordinary organ in the human body.
Throughout my unit I chose to use materials that students were experienced in using. (With the exception of the dissection lesson's materials.) For most lessons I used different tools of technology such as microscopes, computers, video, interactive websites, and an overhead projector. Also, students were subjected to worksheets, pre-assessment evaluation charts, as well as other craft-like materials such as tape, butcher paper, markers, crayons, etc. The Anatomy of Memory lesson was planned very carefully as students had never been subjected to a real brain specimen, let alone dissecting tools. I conducted this topic in a way that was broken into very organized and slow steps. We began the lesson with a brief safety session and when it came time to perform the dissections students would watch my actions, perform theirs, then wait for me to make my rounds at each incision. I was available for all questions and set away enough time to allow for flexibility as I knew it was going to be a lab activity that most students had never participated in before.
I feel that this unit plan could easily be taught in a real classroom as it fulfills all the requirements that make for great lesson plans. It incorporates many sources of inquiry, is engaging for all students, is created in the way that is wary of different learning styles, includes many literacy practices and was carefully planned to link every lesson to students' every day lives. Also, I designed the learning objectives to indicate deep understanding in the students as well as creating engaging activities where I could assess whether the students' ending activity products served as evidence of their understanding.
From Cells to Organs, Rationale:
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